The big event in May was Convocation as we said goodbye to 19 B.Sc. (Hons.) graduates, 48 B.Sc. graduates, and 9 students from other departments with Minors in Biochemistry. Craig Ayre, Shemul Dev, and Yanbo Yang each received their M.Sc. degree, and Erica Edison received her PhD.

In addition to their degrees, some students received special awards at Convocation:

-Rahul-dev Kalsi, who won the University Medal for Academic Excellence in Biochemistry, and Society of Chemical Industry Merit Award (Biochemistry)

-Hilary Moores, who won the University Medal for Academic Excellence in Biochemistry (Nutrition)

-Sara Young, who won the Grace Morgan Prize in Biochemistry (Nutrition)

-Burton Ward, who won the Captain Robert A. Bartlett Science Award

At the department’s annual Convocation Reception on May 28, the following book prizes were given to students: the Head’s Prize was awarded to Alexander Dickie, Alecia Rideout, and Sara Young; the Brosnan Prize was awarded to Brian Harnett, Megan Legrow, Courtney Manuel, Burton Ward, and Kimberley Williams; and the Mookerjea Prize was awarded to Brian Harnett, Lauren Jones, Rahul-dev Kalsi, Hilary Moores, Alecia Rideout, Mark Shea, Burton Ward and Sara Young. Each of these prizes are awarded for academic excellence as outlined in our awards page.

There’s been a longstanding tradition that each May at our reception the head or deputy head donates a special prize to the student in 499B (the honours project course) who has their thesis submitted first. There are usually about 15 – 20 students in the class who are eligible to win. This year’s winner was Matt Quann.

At the Employee Service Awards Ceremony on May 15, three employees were recognized for their years of service with Memorial. Drs. Ratnajothi Hoover and Martin Mulligan along with Ms. Donna Hunt received 25 year certificates.

We welcomed one new graduate student at the start of the Spring semester. Alex Trevors joined our M.Sc. program after finishing his B.Sc. with us in April.

Summer student hiring continued into May, with students funded from various programs as well as from supervisor’s research grants. By the end of May, 18 students were working in research labs for the summer in either part-time or full-time positions.